By Delvon Mc Ewan
Kemo Paul and Ashkay Homraj registered half centuries to guide Guyana to its second successive victory in the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) Regional Under-19 Limited Overs match against ICC Americas yesterday at the Georgetown Cricket Club (GCC) ground, Bourda.
Paul (51) scored his second half century in as many matches while Homraj made a blistering 69 from 56 deliveries to set a winning total of 229-9 for the hosts who won the toss and opted to bat. The visitors responded with 180 all out from 43.5 overs, falling short by 49 runs.
Paul and Homraj added 44 runs for the fifth wicket after joining forces at 98-4. The pair increased Guyana’s scoring rate after the hosts reached three figures in 33.4 overs. By that time the West Indies U19 opening pair of Tagenarine Chanderpaul (18) and Shimron Hetmyer (21) were back in the pavilion along with Sharaz Ramcharan (17) and Brian Sattaur (8). Paul struggled to rotate the strike early in his innings. It took the 16-year-old from Essequibo 46 deliveries to score his first boundary which took him double figures. That boundary came in the 25th over of the match and was the first since the ninth over.
P
aul, who was promoted to bat at number four after batting at number seven in the last match, accelerated the scoring rate when the power play was taken in the 35th over with Guyana at 107-4. He reached his 50 in the fourth over of the power play with a powerful punch over cover off Nikhil Dutta that went for six but was removed three balls later by the same bowler after facing 83 deliveries.
Unlike Paul, Homraj was fluent throughout his innings which included seven fours and a six. The highlight of his stay at the crease was two exquisite cover driven boundaries (the first boundary was aerial while the other was placed along the ground). Homraj also added 69 runs, his team’s highest partnership of the match, with Kemol Savoury, who made 19. Kaifer Phil, Nikhil Dutta and Arsh Buch took two wickets each for the visitors.
Guyana’s leading spinners in the longer format Steven Sankar (3-25) and Ramcharan (3-15) combined to take six wickets as the visitors fell short of their target. The ICC Americas started badly as they slipped to 22-3 after a destructive opening spell by spinners Ramcharan who collected two of the three wickets and Balchand Baldeo who took the other. However, the innings recovered during a fourth wicket partnership worth 50 runs between Dutta (29) and Farhan Malik (26). After Dutta was run out, Sankar made inroads for the hosts as the visitors slipped deeper into trouble.
The visitors finally regained momentum when Onias Bascome, who batted at number nine enter the crease. Bascome belted five huge sixes and a solitary four in his knock of 53 from 34 deliveries. He was the last wicket that fell in his team’s innings when he was dismissed by Chanderpaul immediately after reaching his 50.
